Differentiation allows you to provide superior value to customers at an affordable price, creating a win-win scenario that can boost the overall profitability and viability of your business.

Creating a clearly defined mission statement is the first thing you should do when starting a business or entrepreneurial venture.

Every entrepreneur seems to believe that every consumer or business needs our product or service. As a result, when we look for new customers, called prospecting, we tend to spread our energy around

How do you give yourself the best chance of hitting your sales goals? Hitting your sales goals is a function of your message and the tools and process you put in place for you and/or your team.

One of the greatest fears of the untrained salesperson is hearing objections or concerns

In the early stages of a business, you often have two simultaneous problems that affect the efficiency of your sales process. First, it is often the founder or management team that are the only ones who understand your market's nuances.

As a business grows, pitching becomes increasingly important. As the business seeks investors, new clients, or even new employees, a business owner must repeatedly reveal details about the company to others.

How do you validate your idea to determine whether it can be a business success and help you achieve your personal and professional goals as an entrepreneur?

The entrepreneurial venture is normally characterized by communications that would generously be called "chaotic."

What is emotional intelligence? Emotional intelligence is the ability to read and understand your own emotions as well as others’ emotions in the context of a particular situation to maximize the result.

Your team is the most important asset you have, and yet, for many entrepreneurs with young companies, recruiting is the skill to which we devote the least time and discipline.

I recently had an entrepreneur tell me, “No one can perform up to my standards.” I asked her, “What about Steve Jobs or Arianna Huffington or Martin Luther King or Donna Karan or Elon Musk? Would they be okay?”

Values can set a company apart from the competition by clarifying its identity and serving as a rallying point for employees.

In the chaotic world of entrepreneurship, it is rare that entrepreneurs assess how they work, and how they organize and execute their days. We are often running from fire to fire and don’t think about the ways we can be more efficient, more balanced, more rested and more effective.

Our teams aren’t failing to care enough—we as leaders are failing to recognize and accept that no one cares as much as we do and take measures to bridge this gap.

Developing a deep knowledge of your ideal customer, a concept known in the marketing realm as buyer persona profiling, is critical to increasing the relevance of your efforts.

Pick a market and go after it. Debate with your team and advisors what that market should be. But once you decide what it is, learn as much as you can about it and be committed to making a name for yourself in it

Startups are a battleground for entrepreneurs to showcase their bubbling skills and risk-taking capabilities to the world. But one should ensure that they don’t end up in legal soup by missing out on any of the critical legal documents for startups required by every new business.

There are times when a business faces issues that are too complex, too time consuming, or fraught with liability issues. At that point, the wisest move is to retain a business lawyer.

There is no magic formula, but there are certainly ways that you can have a better sense of whether your idea has legs.

Advisory boards can be an invaluable source of insight. Think of an advisory board as a collection of mentors that can provide individual expertise, provide you a sounding board for ideas, give you advice, introduce you to valuable contacts, and tell you when you’re potentially making a mistake.

Before you attempt to change the world, you should take a hard look at your company to get a clear picture of its purpose and place. This can be done with a familiar planning tool called a SWOT Analysis.